Paul George is getting tired of Thunder losing: 'It has to stop'

After the Thunder lost to the Hornets on Monday night, Carmelo Anthony was not available to the media. His absence was a bit of a surprise, as Anthony has a reputation for always being willing to answer tough questions.

Paul George, unlike Anthony, was available, and his frustration was pretty obvious.

“For the talent we have, this is obviously not where we wanted to be,” George said.

“But we’re gonna remain optimistic of the future and what we can do once we can find a way to really do it on a night-in, night-out,” he said.

“It’s no panic mode, but we have to start playing better. It’s getting to a point where we can’t let ourselves be at this point. We can say ‘we’re gonna figure it out,’ we could say all that but at some point, it’s gotta stop,” he said.

Paul George: “It’s not panic mode but we have to start playing better…We can say we gotta figure it out. We can say all that. But at some point, it has to stop.” pic.twitter.com/KeO4NypJWE

George is speaking the truth here. The Thunder are 26 games into their season and have only 12 wins to show for it. They entered the season with hopes of challenging the Warriors for supremacy atop the Western Conference, yet wouldn’t even qualify for the playoffs if they began today.

Although it’s true that 26 games isn’t 40 games, it certainly is enough to figure out how to incorporate new pieces and work together.

“You gotta figure out what’s working,” George said when asked what the Thunder needed to do to change things. “That’s the whole thing about consistency,” he said.

“It’s about figuring out what’s working and staying with it.”

To this point, Billy Donovan’s job security hasn’t been discussed, so it stands to reason that he is somewhat safe in Oklahoma City, but George’s suggesting that the Thunder don’t know what’s working and that they’re still trying to figure it out after 26 games—that’s a negative reflection on the head coach.

There’s no question that everyone involved with the franchise—especially the players—had high hopes entering the season. While it’s too early to consider them to have been too lofty, it’s okay to be concerned about where the Thunder are and questioning whether or not these pieces and personalities are actually the right fit with one another.

The Thunder begin a three-game road trip on Wednesday night when the club visit George’s former home in Indianapolis. Hopefully, for George and Donovan’s sake, the team wins at least two of the games on the trip.

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Moke Hamilton

Moke Hamilton is a writer and columnist for the USA TODAY Sports Media Group's NBA Wire. Based in New York City, Moke has covered the NBA for seven seasons, previously working for Turner Sports and NBC Universal. He can be heard from time to time on the airwaves of 98.7FM ESPN New York.